The Amateur, The Cats of Gogoku Shrine, Death of a Unicorn are all in cinemas.
In James Hawes’ The Amateur, Rami Malek plays a devoted but slightly absent-minded husband whose wife goes overseas on business for five days only to be killed by terrorists, and I’ve just dropped the editor-in-chief off at the airport so she can go away for five days, so you’ll forgive me if I’m not wild about the premise of this film.
Malek is Charlie Heller, a mild-mannered CIA analyst enraged by his superiors’ unwillingness to go and get revenge on his behalf and so takes matters into his own inexperienced hands. What he doesn’t realise is that he has stumbled across a conspiracy that goes to (almost) the very top of the agency and his globetrotting efforts at meting out justice have made him a target for just about everyone. Luckily he discovers a talent for – word of the moment – lethality that doesn’t involve hand-to-hand combat.
This is some well-made tosh distinguished mainly by the fact that Malek plays it like it’s Tolstoy. He’s a real human dealing with grief, fear and rage but he’s surrounded by cartoon characters and, despite the effective direction by Slow Horses’ Hawes, it pays not to look too closely at what’s going on with the plot.
It’s not entirely clear what Heller’s profession actually is. He works in the Decryption Department in the 5th level of the Langley basement but has a nice office furnished with some vintage hi-fi gear and has his own anonymous source supplying him with terabytes of secrets. Like I say, don’t kick the tires too hard on this one but it’s a classy diversion.
The Cats of Gokogu Shrine is a lovely minor-key documentary that uses the colony of street felines that inhabit (or infest depending on your point of view) the tiny oyster fishing village of Ushimado as a way to show us aspects of Japanese culture and the impact of changing demographics. The population of Ushimado is ageing and the maintenance of the Gokogu Shrine is largely up to two octogenarians who totter up the steep staircase regularly to sweep, weed and water the garden.
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The cats seem to be mostly visited by non-locals – younger people who can’t have pets in their city apartments. Locals complain that the people who visit the cats are not the ones who do the cleaning up after them, but it’s the guests who ensure the cats are at least fixed. In fact, the population would be dropping if it weren’t for the fact that the shrine is a popular place to leave abandon kittens.
Director Soda Kazuhiro has been making documentaries for film and television for decades but the last few have been in this “Observational” series where he refuses to research or prepare anything before getting his camera out. The stories simply emerge over time and he’s not afraid to make himself a character if that’s what the topic demands. I’d love to see more of his work.
Arriving undercooked in cinemas is a satirical monster movie taking potshots at the soft target of pharmaceutical oligarchs. In Death of a Unicorn, Paul Rudd plays a widowed father and corporate lawyer visiting the remote lodge of his ailing boss, played by Richard E. Grant. He’s on the verge of a big promotion but only if he can prove that he’s a good family man – hence the unwilling participation on the trip of his goth daughter (Jenna Ortega).
On the way, a combination of poor cellphone reception, allergies and bickering means they hit a creature who has strayed on to the road. It’s an actual unicorn and it turns out to be pretty hard to put of its misery.
Several poor decisions later and the beast – and its magical healing properties – are now in the hands of the capitalist pigs and its much more scary parents are coming to get it back.
I wanted more of Anthony Carrigan as Griff, the eternally put upon manservant, and less of the failson Shepard (Will Poulter) and I also wanted there to be more practical versus digital effects. I like my monsters to have that tactile quality and their impacts to be more visceral.
